1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a disk drive command interface, and more particularly, to a disk drive for implementing nonstandard disk-drive commands on a serial ATA interface that only supports standard ATA disk-drive commands.
2. Description of the Prior Art
A standard parallel ATA interface uses a 40 pin connector and a bulky flat ribbon cable that is becoming unable to accommodate further growth in the data transfer capacity of the interface. A serial ATA interface is emerging that can accommodate growth in data transfer capacity and that uses a significantly smaller 7 conductor connector. The connector includes a receive differential pair of conductors and a transmit differential pair of conductors. The remaining three conductors are ground connections. The serial ATA interface does not provide for nonstandard (or vendor specific) disk-drive commands. Typically, nonstandard disk-drive commands are used primarily during disk-drive manufacture and quality testing. Providing a separate nonstandard disk-drive command interface would add to the cost of the disk drive.
Accordingly, there exists a need for a disk drive that implements nonstandard disk-drive commands on a serial ATA interface that only supports standard ATA disk-drive commands. The present invention satisfies theses needs.